Review 2025

8 IMPRESSIONIST & MODERNART Great names from art history invariably at- tract attention on the art market. In 2025, our Impressionist & Modern Art department was able to place a remarkable work by Paul Cézanne with a buyer in Germany. The small-format painting ‘L’après-midi à Naples’, dating from 1876/77, addresses the myth of the Bacchanal, which the artist combines with a scene of bourgeois everyday life. The work belongs to a small group of erotic composi- tions in which Cézanne responded to Édouard Manet’s ‘Olympia’, a painting that had been perceived as scandalous at the time. Interest was undoubtedly sparked not only by the quality of the work itself, but also by its provenance: the first owner was the Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who devoted a groundbreaking exhibition to Cézanne in 1895 – an exhibition visited by Picasso, Ma- tisse and Braque. The intimate scene, execut- ed in Cézanne’s distinctive manner, sold for CHF 570 000 to a private collector. Louis Valtat. Dahlias, cruche verte, 1942. Oil on canvas, 92 × 73 cm. Sold for CHF 320 000 to Western Switzerland